Lua

***** About This Book *****
* From game physics to successful marketing, learn the fundamentals of Corona SDK for game development
* Integrate your games with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook
* This is a pragmatic guide explained in a step-by-step manner to create and deploy games quicklymore » and efficiently
***** Who This Book Is For *****
This book is for anyone who wants to have a go at creating commercially successfully games for Android and iOS. You don't need game development or programming experience.
***** What You Will Learn *****
* Learn how to script in Lua and get a better understanding of command flow, functions, and objects
* Load images and add a background image to your games
* Apply more functionality to your game using more APIs
* Use sprite sheets and create more complex game logic for the game
* Track your data and save the scores of your games
* Make your game socially aware by sharing messages and scores on Facebook and Twitter
***** In Detail *****
Corona is a software development kit to build mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
This book will take you through the journey of developing games right from installing Corona SDK and creating Hello World as your first app. Going further, you will learn how to script in Lua and learn some techniques to apply this in Corona SDK with demonstration. Towards the end of the book you'll build the final game, which involves physical objects and also uses features such as the accelerometer. Moreover, learn to make your game socially available on Twitter and Facebook.
By the end of the book, you'll learn to deploy your iOS and Android games to the App Store and Google Play Store. « less

The Lua language allows developers to create everything from simple to advanced applications and to create the games they want. Creating a good game is an art, and using the right tools and knowledge is essential in making game development easier.
This book will guide you through each part of buildingmore » your game engine and will help you understand how computer games are built. The book starts with simple game concepts used mainly in 2D side-scroller games, and moves on to advanced 3D games. Plus, the scripting capabilities of the Lua language give you full control over game.
By the end of this book, you will have learned all about the components that go into a game, created a game, and solved the problems that may arise along the way.
***** Who This Book Is For *****
This book is for all programmers and game enthusiasts who want to stop dreaming about creating a game, and actually create one from scratch.
The reader should know the basics of programming and using the Lua language. Knowledge of the C/C++ programming language is not necessary, but it's strongly recommended in order to write custom Lua modules extending game engine capabilities or to rewrite parts of the Lua code into a more efficient form.
Algebra and matrix operations are required in order to understand advanced topics in Chapter 4, Graphics – Legacy Method with OpenGL 1.x-2.1 and Chapter 5, Graphics – Modern Method with OpenGL 3.0+.
Sample demonstrations are coupled with binary libraries for Windows and Linux operating systems for convenience.
***** What You Will Learn *****
* Set up OpenGL graphics along with GLSL shaders
* Use lighting and graphical effects
* Create animated game characters using Box2D library
* Load and use textures, fonts, and 3D models
* Design and implement a graphical user interface
* Integrate simple Artificial Intelligence for pathfinding
* Implement networking support
* Use data structures in programming « less

Nmap is a well-known security tool used by penetration testers and system administrators for many different networking tasks. The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) was introduced during Google's Summer of Code 2006 and has added the ability to perform additional tasks on target hosts, such as advanced fingerprintingmore » and service discovery and information gathering.
This book will teach you everything you need to know to master the art of developing NSE scripts. The book starts by covering the fundamental concepts of Lua programming and reviews the syntax and structure of NSE scripts. After that, it covers the most important features of NSE. It jumps right into coding practical scripts and explains how to use the Nmap API and the available NSE libraries to produce robust scripts. Finally, the book covers output formatting, string handling, network I/O, parallelism, and vulnerability exploitation.
***** Who This Book Is For *****
If you want to learn to write your own scripts for the Nmap Scripting Engine, this is the book for you. It is perfect for network administrators, information security professionals, and even Internet enthusiasts who are familiar with Nmap. « less

Game AI can be easily broken up into a number of components such as decision making, animation handling, and tactics, but the balance and interaction between each system strikes a balance between good AI and bad AI.
Beginning with an introduction to the AI sandbox, each new aspect of game AI is introduced,more » implemented, and then expanded upon. Going forward, you will learn to utilize open source libraries such as Ogre3D, Bullet Physics, OpenSteer, Recast, Detour, and Lua to create an AI sandbox with an entire codebase available to expand and step through.
This is done through a step-by-step approach, from learning to move basic shapes to fully animating your soldiers. By the end of the book, your AI will be able to navigate, path find, manage animation playback, communicate, and perceive their environment.
***** Who This Book Is For *****
If you are a game developer or a general programmer who wishes to focus on programming systems and techniques to build your game AI without creating low-level interfaces in a game engine, then this book is for you.
Knowledge of C++ will come in handy to debug the entirety of the AI sandbox and expand on the features present within the book, but it is not required. « less

If you've used the Corona Software Development Kit to build your very first new mobile app, you already know how easy it makes developing across all the pieces of this fragmented market. This book upgrades your knowledge of Lua and the Corona API with designs, habits and advanced concepts to speed yourmore » development and create more exciting apps.
Corona SDK Hotshot will show you how to combine advanced Lua features such as coroutines and metatables with Corona's sophisticated tools, including physics and networking, to develop exactly the game or app you or your customers need, quickly and with an eye towards updating your app with improvements in the future. « less

Develop cross-platform mobile games with Corona using the Lua programming language! Corona is experiencing explosive growth among mobile game developers, and this book gets you up to speed on how to use this versatile platform. You'll use the Corona SDK to simplify game programming and take a fun, no-nonsensemore » approach to write and add must-have gameplay features. You'll find out how to create all the gaming necessities: menus, sprites, movement, perspective and sound effects, levels, loading and saving, and game physics. Along the way, you'll learn about Corona's API functions and build three common kinds of mobile games from scratch that can run on the iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and all other Android smartphones and tablets. « less

LOVE is a game development framework for making 2D games using the Lua programming language. LOVE is totally free, and can be used in anything from friendly open-source hobby projects, to closed-source commercial ones. Using the Lua programming framework, one can use LOVE2D to make any sort of interestingmore » games.
LOVE for Lua Game Programming will quickly and efficiently guide you through how to develop a video game from idea to prototype. Even if you are new to game programming, with this book, you will soon be able to create as many game titles as you wish without stress. « less

Lua is the language of choice for anyone who needs a scripting language that is simple, efficient, extensible, portable, and free. Currently, Lua is being used in areas ranging from embedded systems to Web development and is widely spread in the game industry, where knowledge of Lua is an indisputablemore » asset. Lua also has established itself as a major language in software development for mobile devices. Programming in Lua is the official book about the language, giving a solid base for any programmer who wants to use Lua. Authored by Roberto Ierusalimschy, the chief architect of the language, it covers all aspects of Lua 5 - from the basics to its API with C - explaining how to make good use of its features and giving numerous code examples.
Programming in Lua is targeted at people with some programming background, but does not assume any prior knowledge about Lua or other scripting languages. This Third Edition updates the text to Lua 5.2 and brings substantial new material. In particular, it brings more than one hundred exercises distributed through all chapters, ranging from simple questions about the language to full small-size projects. « less

The #1 bestselling programming book is back with updated and expanded coverage of the newest release of WoW! World of Warcraft (WoW) is currently the world's largest massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The newest release, "Wrath of the Lich King," has created a demand for updated informationmore » on writing addons. This eagerly anticipated edition answers that request and is an essential reference for creating WoW addons.
Written by a duo of authors who have each contributed a number of successful WoW addons, the book offers an overview of Lua and XML (the programming languages used to write addons) and includes coverage of specific pitfalls and common programming mistakes-and how to avoid them. Valuable examples show you detailed aspects of writing addons for WoW and demonstrate how to implement addon concepts such as variables, slash commands, secure templates, and more.
* World of Warcraft insiders share their techniques for writing addons for both the latest version of WoW as well as the new Wrath of the Lich King expansion set
* Guides you through the specific nuances of the WoW API with the use of detailed examples
* Discusses ways to distribute and host your WoW addons so others can download and use them
* Explains how to respond to events, create frames, and use the WoW API to interact with the game
You'll be well on your way to creating exciting WoW addons with this comprehensive reference by your side. « less

Lua offers a wide range of features that you can utilize to support and enhance your applications. With this book as your guide, you'll gain a thorough understanding of all aspects of programming with this powerful language. It will walk you through the basics, covering everything from installing Luamore » on your system to developing games and web sites.
Experts Jung and Brown first present the fundamentals of programming and explain standard Lua functions. They then show you how to take advantage of all of the free Lua community resources that are available. Complete code samples are integrated throughout the chapters to clearly demonstrate how to apply the information. Diagrams are also included to highlight important Lua features such as stacks, hash tables, garbage collection, and function closures. All of this will help you to quickly write your own effective programs. « less